For the last few years, especially since Facebook became all the rage, social network marketing has become more and more the wave of the future. If you want to make money online, especially if you don’t have a big advertising budget, this is the way to go.

If you haven’t yet jumped in and started to take advantage of this growing trend, let’s talk about a few things to help you get a feel for what you need to do. It’s really easy, and fun!

Note that many people are making lots of money through social network marketing strategies, while others are trying really hard but just missing it. This is something you have to study and think through a bit (unless you are a natural socializer, then you have a huge edge).

What is Social Network Marketing?

A simple definition of social network marketing is this:

Participating in online social communities (Facebook, LinkedIn, message boards, forums, anywhere people are gathered to talk about things), with the express intent to build up your list of friends and contacts. You may have heard the old saying, “you can figure a business person’s wealth by the size of their Rolodex”.

It’s true. The more people you know, who know you, the better your chances of success in business. You simply need to become an effective online networker.

Developing Your Social Strategy

Look at what the superstars in your niche are doing in the social communities. If you are a network marketer, do a little watching and spying to see how these folks present themselves and what it is about them that appeals to others.

Follow these people and begin to develop a relationship with them by commenting on their stuff, sharing their content, things like that. In the process of doing this, you will gain more exposure for yourself and that’s what you are looking for.

You’ll notice that you find the same successful people on the social networking sites consistently. Day after day. Since we are talking “social” here, you must be steady and participate regularly in your favorite social communities. It isn’t as simple as blogging, where you can post content that can work for you long term. Social media success requires constant interaction and building relationships with others.

Are you using Facebook a lot to build your business? If so, consider creating a business page to keep your personal and business activities separate. Your personal Facebook account is great for building relationships with people, showing glimpses of your life and activities, and in general branding you as a distinct personality. Your business page is where you will promote your business, offer support, put links to anything you are selling, things like that. You’ll notice that the top social leaders separate personal and business, for the most part.

It isn’t altogether cut and dried, because you’ll see many successful social leaders posting things like pictures of their company sponsored trips on their personal pages, but look to their business pages for most of their business activity.

Using Video to Enhance Your Social Network Marketing

You will be building friendships and relationships with many people you’ll never meet in person. That’s just the nature of online social networking. One very effective way to overcome the lack of “face to face” interaction and build respect and trust is to use video.

I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that YouTube gets many millions of visitors each day. Just getting some videos of yourself up there where potential prospects can find them makes a big difference in your marketing. If you don’t like video, take heart, because a lot of people don’t. However, you can and should learn how to do it.

Honestly, you don’t have to be perfect on camera. In fact, if you are less than perfect it makes you more human and believable. Just be yourself and people will trust and appreciate you more.

Attraction Marketing for Long Term Business Success

Social network marketing is really just a form of “attraction marketing”. You are basically putting yourself out there and attracting people who like and trust you. This is much the same as the relationships you build in the “face to face” world, and the principles are similar. Doing all this online is just an extension of the same basic principles that have worked for many years.

Once you become good at social network marketing, you will be like the “big leaders” and able to create leads on demand for your business.

Did you get some value from this post? If you did, I would really appreciate you sharing it with others! And, your comments are welcome below!

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